CAPE BUFFALO

African buffaloes are also known as cape buffaloes. Their massive size and aggressive nature makes it very hard for predators to hunt them. Other than lions they don’t have any big enemies. Lions usually hunt them together as it is not possible for a single lion to bring down an adult buffalo. They are known to be extremely unpredictable which makes them very different from their Asian counterparts. They kill more people in Africa than any other animal does and because of this aggressive nature these buffaloes cannot be domesticated. Cape buffaloes move as a well packed herd with a dominant male leading the herd and the calves will be shielded by the adults. Lions usually hunt them by separating the herd and isolating one of them. Even if they become separated during hunts they organize soon and will try to rescue a member that has been caught. They have been known to inflict fatal injuries to lions, which makes it very risky for any predator to hunt them.

ENDANGERED

There are many animals in our world which are facing the threat of extinction. The cheetah is one among them. Destruction of natural habitat is the main cause for the decline of population of many animals. But in the cheetah’s case other wild animals are also a big cause for the threats they are facing. Lions kill cheetah cubs without hesitation whenever they find them. Other predators like hyenas also hunt cheetah cubs if possible.Although the cheetah is the fastest land animal it is very inferior to most of the big cats and other predators in terms of physical strength. A full grown cheetah can never defend its cubs against a lioness and if within range even adult cheetahs are easily killed by lions. This seemingly cruel act may be because the lions don’t want any competition in hunting for prey. Most of the cheetah hunts are successful because of their superior speed but the prey that they killed can be easily snatched away by lions or hyenas. Efforts are done by many organizations like raising them in captivity, protecting them against poachers etc to improve their population.

BETTA

The Siamese fighting fish which is also called as Betta is always known for its brilliant coloration and long fins. They are found in many colors and varieties. As the name suggests male bettas are fierce fighters. A betta seems to be very calm when he lives with other types of fishes in an aquarium. But it’s when you put two males together in a tank that he shows his real fighting nature. A fight between two male bettas will only end with one’s death. A male betta may be a deadly fighter, but he is a good father too, because after spawning with a female he is the one who protects the eggs. A male betta usually likes to live a solitary life. They are easy to keep since a male betta requires only a small container of water and these fishes can live even in poor oxygen conditions. Many people enjoy their fights and making these fishes fight is taken as a sport in some countries.

LIGER

A liger is the offspring of a male lion and female tiger. Ligers can be bred only in captivity since lions and tigers live in different regions in the wild. A liger is much larger than both of its parents. , actually the liger is the largest cat in the world. Most of them weigh more than 500 kilos. From the image itself we can understand how massive this cat is. They have the color almost similar to a lion with light stripes in its body. Ligers would be stunning if they are released in the wild. But its character, that is whether it lives socially as its father or as a solitary hunter like its mother is unknown. Also because of its massive size a liger will find it very hard to generate good speed and as a result most of their hunts will end in failure. So scientists believe that ligers can live only in captivity.

LIVEBEARERS

Live bearers are fishes that give birth to fully developed free swimming babies.Platies, swordtails, guppies and mollies are some of the common colorful live bearing aquatic fishes. They are ideal fishes for beginners. Many aquarists enjoy breeding them and even small children can raise them easily. An interesting fact about live bearers is that it’s very hard to stop them from breeding. They give birth in every 3 to 4 weeks, but the parents won’t take any role in caring for their babies and may even try to eat them. So it’s best to keep these fishes in a well planted aquarium. These small fishes are very active and are always wonderful to watch. Anyone with a small tank can easily raise them. Since the males of these fishes always chase females trying to mate, it’s best to keep lesser number of males as compared to females. Otherwise they won’t give the females any rest. Female live bearers are capable of giving birth 3 or 4 times even after a single mating.

BLACK MAMBA

We all know that snakes are venomous and deadly. Normally snakes attack humans to save their lives. There is a snake in Africa called as black mamba. It’s one of Africa’s most feared and dangerous snakes. Most Africans have many stories to tell about black mambas. Can u imagine a snake which chases u and attack? These black mambas are known for that. They are really aggressive when threatened and will straightly go for the attack. There are many strange stories related to black mambas like getting into houses and attacking each and everyone in the house, chasing people for long distances and so on. But there are no solid evidences for all these things. They have been blamed for many deaths in Africa .Anyway, I had never seen a black mamba and if I get an opportunity to see one, I would like to check whether they have this strange behavior.

My ride

It’s always enjoyable to ride a motorbike through highway roads, especially when the climate is cold and with light showers. At the same time roads can also be slippery with rain. . I like bike riding very much. Once when I was riding my bike through the highway a dog suddenly jumped across my way and before I could apply brake the bike hit the dog and I lost my balance completely. Luckily I was not injured. First I thought, that was the end of the poor dog. But the dog just got up after the encounter and ran to the other side of the road and then I saw him watching me from a fair distance. May be he was wondering whether I was injured. I was really surprised because even after hitting it with good speed the dog didn’t seem to have even the slightest pain.

RHINO

A rhinoceros is often called as rhino. These huge animals seem to be calm in nature, but they are extremely unpredictable and are known to charge at anything without provocation. As adults lions are rarely known to bring down rhinos. It’s always really funny to watch elephants and rhinos quarrel each other when they come close in search of vegetation and water. Once I even saw a small rhino trying to be aggressive against an elephant. Normally young rhinos are quite in nature, but this one was like a fire bull.

my angel fishes

I have a pair of angel fishes in my big fish tank. Their tank mates include other big fishes like carps and catfishes. A week before the pair laid some eggs on the leaves of some water plants. Angel fishes are extremely protective for their young and both my angel fishes took care of their eggs. But within a few days the big carps in my tank understood that there were some eggs along the water plants . My poor angel fishes tried their level best to protect their eggs, but they couldn’t defend their eggs against the big carps and the eggs were completely eaten. I felt really sorry for my angelfishes because before I could do any help all their eggs were lost.

That shameful incident

Once during my first year college life I accidentally fell into a small sewage besides the road leading to my college. It was a rainy day and the whole place was filled with water. After getting up myself from the fall I found two girls laughing at me and the volume of their laugh increased when they saw me spitting some water which got into my mouth during the fall. I felt really ashamed and embarrassed and within no time I escaped from there in my bike.

The leopard

A leopard is often called as the master of ambush. This is because of the fact that a leopard hunts it prey by surprise.Even though they are the smallest of the four big cats they have superior abilities than the other big cats. A leopard can drag a killed prey even twice its own size up to the tree tops. This ability helps them to keep their prey safe from other predators like hyenas and lions. They are elegantly built and have powerful claws which make this beautiful animal a magnificent predator

PUNISHED THAT BRUTAL CAT

This incident happened 5 years back when I had a lot of pigeons at my home. They were of many Colors like white, black spotted, grey and brown. They all lived in complete harmony before one morning when I found four of my pigeons brutally killed. One of them was fully eaten and then another one with its head missing and the remaining two were simply dead, may be those two were killed by blows at their heads. I was really sad on seeing my pigeons dead and I didn’t have any clue about the culprit of this brutal act. Then that evening when I was having my tea, I heard the sound of my pigeons flying away together. I immediately ran to the place where their cages were kept and I couldn’t find any predator there, but all the pigeons looked frightened and they were reluctant to come back from the tree tops even after calling them by offering food. Then as I looked through the cages I found one dark cat hiding inside one cage. I realized that he is the one who killed my pigeons that morning and once again he has made the attempt. But this time the pigeons flew away and so he sat at the cage expecting that the pigeons could come back at any time. Then as he tried to escape, he was well within my reach and I gave him some nasty blows with a stick at his legs. I was really delighted about the fact that I could punish him, but felt really sorry when I saw him with a broken leg after some days. There after he never made an attempt to attack my pigeons

my fishes

I have two fish tanks in my courtyard. One of them is a large one and the other a smaller concrete tank. In the larger tank I have a lot of big fishes like gold fishes, carps and catfishes. They really consume large Quantities of food daily. Every morning and evening I used to spend a lot of time with these fishes. Over the years we had become good friends. In my smaller tank I have some good varieties of swordtail fishes like hifin swordtails, white swordtails and Belgium swordtails. Months before I bought a female swordtail from a nearby aquarium .she was red in color with some black patches. During the early days of her life in my tank she looked very much like a female swordtail fish and other males were after her. But after a few weeks I noticed that she developed some male characters .she started chasing away other males. First I thought that this may be because she is a strong female. Then I was surprised to see her trying to mate with other females. I was really amazed by her behavior. After some days I talked about this matter to a nearby aquarist and he said that swordtails have this character of changing sexes. Any way this is the first time that I am having a fish which exhibits bisexual behavior. I wondered if humans also had these types of abilities then what would have been this

BIG PREDATORS

Talking about wildlife one animal which we can’t skip is the lion. Even though for us they are extremely cruel animals, a very interesting fact is that they are the only social cats in this world. Isn’t it amazing? Just as we people do these extremely dangerous predators knows to live as a group. I had always watched these magnificent predators with great wonder .its really amazing to see these animals living in a pride under the leadership of a big male. Well the color of Africa is said to be the color of the lion. A lion may be called as the king of the jungle, but these animals find it extremely hard to outrun their prey. Their success depends on team work. Once I watched through the television a group of wild buffaloes attacking lions. Buffaloes are one of the lion’s favorite preys. This incident happened when a herd of buffaloes lead by a big male noticed some lionesses with young cubs lying in an open grass land .the lionesses knew that they were in danger and they had no option against this big herd other than to run away, but the young cubs hesitated and the buffaloes seized this opportunity and really squeezed those cubs to death with their horny heads. Buffaloes are not known for this type of behavior, may be they were taking revenge for what the lions had done to their calves when the lions had the advantage. In this case the buffaloes proved that they are also good opportunists. So even the king of the jungle is not safe from threats in the wild, but a big and healthy pride has fewer threats. Lions and hyenas are also big enemies. No adult lion will waste a chance to kill a hyena. I felt sorry for some young cheetah cubs when once I saw a lioness killing a few of them. It was not long before I understood that some lions make it as a habit killing cheetah cubs. The fastest but the weakest cheetah mother will not stand a chance against the powerful lion

ON MY FIRST BLOG

Dear friends. My name is Shabi BK and as u all know I’m someone who is very new to this field of blogging.But I am very keen that my first blog should be about something which i was really interested right from my childhood. It doesn’t mean that this is my only interest, but this is one among my great interests. That’s why i named it as WILD AND EXTREME.Infact it’s about life in the wild, how it can be peaceful and aggressive at the same time. I would like to share all my experiences and observations with u so that in that process u will also be entertained.Right from my younger days I use to have a lot of aquarium fishes and birds at my home .I used to share my experiences with these pets during talks with my friends. During my tenth standard time I had a lot of pigeons at my home and I spend a great deal of time caring for them. Luckily it didn’t affect my studies .now even after completing my engineering studies (to be frank there are some more papers left) I still have a big craze towards animals. An interesting fact is that my mother never liked any of these pets or animals. She always used to quarrel with me for spending time with them. For her it’s just a waste of time. But my father really liked these activities. my personal opinion to any one who don’t have pets at their home is to just buy a tank of aquarium fish and keep it inside your home so that u can experience that pleasant feeling which they give u when u take care of them and even for young children taking care of pets will grow in them a sense of responsibility.Although the name is given as wild and extreme I would like to talk about all kinds of pets and animals and other matters too